Bigfoot with my niece

On Tuesday May 14 my dog Bigfoot became very lethargic and his abdomen was rigid while at work. I became worried that he may have bloat, so I called my sister-in-law and brother who took him to an animal hospital near my office for treatment.  X-rays were performed however they were unable to find anything wrong so, he was brought back to me with painkillers and instructions to see my regular vet for additional workup. By that evening he was getting much better and by the next morning he was back to his old happy-go-lucky self. I still set up an appointment for Monday, May 20 for a check up with my regular vet. Again we could not determine anything that might be wrong with him.



Then, late in the afternoon on Wednesday May 22 he again became very lethargic and would not even help me eat my food which told me something was very wrong (He is a lab, therefore he is a garbage disposal eating everything). I checked his abdomen, it was not rigid, but he did have some tenderness. Within a few hours his gums had turned white and I knew it was time to take him to the vet again. I took him to Silicon Valley Veterinary Specialists off of Santa Teresa in San Jose where they immediately took him to the back and began trying to determine what was wrong.

It turned out that he had a tumor on his spleen that was bleeding into his abdomen. I was informed that the only way to help him would be to have a splenectomy and that they would not be able to determine whether it was cancer or not until the spleen was removed and sent out for biopsy. I was also told a surgery of that magnitude would cost $5000 dollars on the low-end and 10,000 on the upper end. Knowing that I did not have that kind of money available to me, I made the very difficult decision to take him home for the night.

I spent the entire night trying to figure out what to do. I knew that if I had any way to even charge that amount, I would do the surgery in a heartbeat. However, the only way I was ever going to be able to do this surgery, was with help from others. Asking other people to understand why it's not a choice whether I do everything possible to save Bigfoot is different. The thing is, he is not just my dog. He's also my service animal, he is my fur baby, and he is my family. I would do anything to save him.


The very next morning, I decided that I would need to set up a GoFundMe page to try and earn the money for the potential surgery. I also knew that my time is very limited because, at anytime, the tumor could burst wide open and he could bleed to death internally. I sent texts to some very specific friends letting them know in advance that I was going to be setting this up because I wanted them to hear it from me before they saw it on social media. One of those friends had the ability, and the extreme generosity, to loan me the funds for this surgery so it could be performed as soon as possible. Since Bigfoot could have bleed internally and died at any moment, I accepted it.

The surgery was performed on Friday May 24 after further preoperative testing including Ultrasound, Chest X-rays and blood work did not show any obvious signs of cancer or other reasons why the surgery should not be performed. The surgery was performed by Dr. Bob Moore at Silicon Valley Veterinary Specialists. It went extremely well, Bigfoot is home and currently recovering. 

The final cost of surgery came to $5600. The funds from this will go to paying my very generous friend’s loan to me back. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Bigfoot means the world to me, not just as my dog and service animal, but as my family. I'm extremely thankful for the help I have already received, but I need to pay my friend back for saving Bigfoot. 

A picture of Bigfoot post surgery on Saturday when he came home. Still pretty drugged up, but home.